Latest Blog Posts

Every decade has its slew of songs that, while memorable at the time, are quickly forgotten once the next decade once its new trends and styles come around. For every timeless classic like “Let It Be” or “Stairway to Heaven”, there’s a “More, More, More” or “96 Tears”. For some reason, it just seems like the ‘90s were home to the most memorable songs that time forgot. Here’s a salute to the songs that stop mattering once the calendar flipped to the year 2000, and some that were forgotten much, much sooner.

Pop Unmuted is a podcast dedicated to in-depth discussion of pop music from varying critical and academic perspectives. On Episode 11, Scott Interrante and Kurt Trowbridge are joined by Toronto-based music blogger Bill Smith and Music and Culture undergraduate Missy Kyzer to talk about pop artists who are far into their careers and what they do or don’t do to stay relevant. We start with a discussion of Brian Wilson’s latest solo album No Pier Pressure and close, as always, with out Unmuted Pop Songs recommendation segment.

Back in 2009, El-P’s famed underground rap label Definitive Jux released their fourth Definitive Jux Presents compilation, featuring another collection of new and stray tracks from their acclaimed roster. Tucked away on that disc was “D-Up”, a collaborative song from Aesop Rock and Rob Sonic, two rappers with highly-regraded solo careers of their own, joining together to carve out a new artistic vision for themselves ...

He’s from England’s West Country but he sounds like he’s straight out of the Bronx.

Like a strange musical answer to The Lonely Londoners and The Planet of Junior Brown, British rapper Luca Brazi’s solo debut, Dying Proof, bridges the gap between the salty airs of English dives and the danger and panic of the South Bronx. The 20-something MC has been circulating in the UK’s underground hip-hop scenes for a number of years now, as a member of hip-hop collectives Granville Sessions, Moose Funk and B.O.M.B. He’s now just released his first solo album this past summer. It’s the product of everything the rapper has loved about hip-hop, his saving grace from his early school days as a young child growing up in the West Country.

Pop Unmuted is a podcast dedicated to in-depth discussion of pop music from varying critical and academic perspectives. On Episode 9, Scott Interrante and Kurt Trowbridge are joined by New York-based Korean artist and Columbia MFA student Bora Kim and Seoul-based American writer Jakob Dorof to talk about K-pop. We discuss what makes Korean pop unique from Western pop and the potential 2ne1’s CL has in crossing over to an American audience. Then we shift our focus to the latest 4Minute single “Crazy”, and close up with our Unmuted Pop Songs recommendations.